A review by wodahs
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Sanderson's world is very straight and very patriarchal. It's pretty obvious what his views are on gender, gender roles, and sexuality. Every one in his world is cis, straight, and women exist to support the male characters. I'd say in the end of the day, I can easily overlook the very straight nature of some series, but the lack of good writing in female characters and the misogynistic portrayals throughout this whole book really brings the quality down for me. I've heard that he gets better over time in writing women in other series, so I'm hopeful. When he tries, he can write really nuance and interesting characters. I do enjoyed part of his exploration with religion, but the conclusion to its exploration felt a bit preachy. I don't like the part where it concluded
Sazed is neither man or woman because he didn't have balls. He's still a man! It could have been a great nonbinary representation if he was one, but no he's just a disabled man.


Just like the Well of Ascension, I didn't give a fuck about the politics. Nothing really happens until the very end when reveals started to happen. I was a bit bored but TenSoon's chapters intrigued me enough to push through. 

This final book confirmed to me that I don't like Elend that much, and his POV are always a slog for me to read. It definitely stifled my enjoyment everytime he's in the chapter. I still don't understand how he became the king in the first place from book two, I only liked him when he was only this book nerd love interest back in book one. He's a privileged kid who reads a couple of books then had the audacity to take over the throne? Even when he "grew" as an king and emperor, he just became more and more insufferable. Vin tells him anything and he just pats her on the head and tells her that everything will be okay and that she's just being paranoid.
I didn't give a shit when Elend died.
he's pretty much a Gary-Sue. He's perfect, everybody loves him, he can do nothing wrong.  For me Vin's characterisation is also dampened whenever she shows up with Elend, she shines the best when she's with other characters. And yes, Elend now suddenly gains the Mistborn status and of course he has to be more powerful than Vin, can't have the wife outshines the husband!

Vin is the only prominent female character in the series with the "not like the other girls" trope, and she's always held back as the submissive backdrop that is of Elend Venture. Elend always doubts her and gaslights her into thinking her opinions don't matter, and by the time Elend finally put faith in her we get the whole
Ruined can hear your plan so don't speak
part where they never have a true equal-footing discussion. Vin blindly puts all her faith in Elend, often trusting that he will solve every problem and she has no agency of stepping up until the very end. She's always described as Elend's wife, and she's his knife, and that she follows his commands like the good little submissive woman she is. Even when she finally
fought Ruin, she only did so because oh no her husband died
!

All the other women in the story are merely love interests, they follow behind their powerful men and dutifully supports them. Tindwyl was a refreshing introduction in book two, then she got killed after we as the reader barely knew her for that long, then her character merely existed as a motivation and trigger for Sazed's character arc. Beldre and Allrianne etc., are reduced to "pretty-things" for our male characters to gawk at and protect. They are just tools to enhance their male love interests, none of them have relationship with each other too, the only interaction I've ever seen between the women are antagonistic to each other.Spook also stalked the girl for a few months and somehow we're supposed to find that romantic.

I also felt unconfortable on the "redemption" of Lord Ruler, claiming that "he's actually a good man" after 1,000 years of slavery, everyone on the page seems to forgive him immediately after knowing that he tried his best to stop Ruin, forgetting why they fought him in the first place back in book one. Yomen the former obligator who kept the noblility and slavery structure in place because the "skaa asked for it" is somehow also a good man and we're supposed to like him. Whereas Quellion, the other leader who wants to free skaa is written as a maniac who doesn't see reason, then
turns out he's borderline insane anyway so he was easily controlled by Ruin
.

The repeated reminders of how allomancy and other power system works in the pages also began to grind my gear. This is the final book of the trilogy, yet Sanderson doesn't trust the reader to be smart enough to remember how his magic system works? We don't need the constant reminder, and I feel if he had cut all those repeating section, the book can be reduced by so many pages. The plot with characters running around circles and going "oh we should attack but oh we shouldn't" was so meandering and felt so unnecessary, nothing really happens! No wonder why the book is so long.

On the other hand, I love the inclusion of more POV in this final book, my favourite character were always Sazed then also TenSoon, I'm glad to see that they played a more major role in this final book. Sazed was depressed yes and I appreciated he went through a whole religious existential crisis. But that's literally what he did for the entirely of the book until the twist at the end...Yeah I didn't enjoy him as much this time.

The ending was satisfying, though.
I was worried that the book was going to end on a happy note that all the main characters survives, Vin and Elend has a happy ever after kind of tone, but I'm so glad that the ending was much more grand and bitter-sweet. I love bitter-sweet endings. I enjoyed the theme of perservation, destruction, and creation. In which perservation and destruction cannot exist on its own, they need creation for themselves to make sense, and only by uniting both force you can have creation. It reminds me greatly of the ending for Slain the Princess, another story that pretty much talks on this theme.
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